Every spring I get some version of the same message. An athlete has a race on the calendar, it's eight weeks out, and they want to get ready for it. I'm always glad to hear from them. But eight weeks isn't enough time to make big moves, and it certainly doesn't leave any margin for when life happens (and life will always happen).
The work that drives a season forward gets done long before registration even opens. It gets done now.
The off-season and base season are one of the biggest opportunities we have all year to move the needle in a meaningful way. Depending on your race schedule, once we're in season, much of the year turns into a race, recover, and rebuild cycle. Add vacations, work trips, school and everything else that comes our way, and the goal often shifts to holding on to what we have.
Once in season, we're mostly protecting fitness. Base is where we build it.
That's true whether you're targeting a local gravel race series or a national calendar. And when I review athletes' training or have initial calls, there are some common mistakes that come up again and again. Here are five of the most common: Two are big picture. Three are about execution.
The Big Picture
1. Skipping the gap analysis
You can't plan a route without knowing both where you're starting from and where you're going. Training works the same way, and most athletes are working with only half the map.
The first half is where you're headed. You don't need every race of 2027 locked in, but you do need an idea of what next season looks like and how you need, or would like, to show up for it. A stage race, a 100-mile gravel event, and a season of XCO ask for very different things. Knowing which one you're preparing for drives what we do now and how we shape the arc of the whole season.
The second half is where you've been. This is the one many athletes skimp on. There is a treasure trove of data and insight in all the work you did this past season: what went well, what didn't, and what opportunities we have going forward. Before turning the page, take an honest look back. A few questions to start with:
Where did you get dropped, fade, or come up short?
Which sessions did you consistently skip or cut short, and why?
When did training feel best, and what was going on in the rest of your life at the time?
Did your race results line up with what your training said you were capable of?
Put the two halves together(well, technically subtract one from the other) and you have a gap analysis: the distance between where you are and where you want to be. That gap is a big part of what shapes the plan.
2. Starting at the wrong time
This one cuts both ways.
Some athletes start too soon. On paper it looks like dedication, but more often than not it's someone who is scared of resting, so they didn't necessarily start too early, they just kept going. A real break after a long season isn't a hole in the plan; it's a deliberate part of it. Your body needs to absorb a season's worth of work, and your head usually needs a break from structure too. Skip it, and athletes tend to arrive in spring flat instead of fresh.
The more common mistake, especially among everyday athletes, is starting too late. Next season doesn't get much thought until the new year, or the holidays arrive without a plan in place. Training falls off, and January becomes a restart instead of a continuation. That's how you end up sending that spring message with eight weeks to go.
The fix isn't a perfect December. It's a plan that accounts for and survives travel, family, and the holiday calendar, even if some weeks are lighter than others. Consistency through this stretch is worth more than any heroic block.
Execution
Once the big picture is in place, it comes down to how the work actually gets done.
3. Going too hard
Base season has room for intensity. What causes problems is intensity nobody planned. Group rides that turn into races. Indoor sessions that turn into tests. Easy days that drift into tempo because the legs feel good and the ride should feel "worth it."
Any one of those on its own isn't a problem. Stacked week after week, they leave you too tired to execute the sessions that matter and too fatigued to get full value from the easy ones. The hard days usually aren't the issue. The issue is when the easy days stop being easy.
4. Going too easy
This is the opposite mistake, and lately I see it just as often. Zone 2 has had a great few years in cycling media, and for good reason; it's the foundation of aerobic fitness. But "base season means only Zone 2" often gets applied without much thought about how many hours an athlete actually has.
A rider training 15 to 20 hours a week can build a lot from long, easy volume (even then we include other efforts). A rider with 6 to 8 hours a week likely isn't getting enough stimulus from Zone 2 alone. For that athlete, tempo and sweet spot work can have a real place in base, along with light touches of other intensities so those systems aren't left untouched for months.
Going too hard and going too easy are really the same mistake: intensity that doesn't match the athlete, their context, their physiology, or their goals. The right mix depends on your hours, your history, and what next season asks of you(callback to the gap analysis), not on whichever philosophy is loudest online.
5. Letting systems slip
Without an event on the calendar, it's easy to let the things that support training slide. Sleep gets shorter. Nutrition gets looser. Time management goes out the window. There's no impending race creating urgency, so there's less keeping us accountable.
I'd challenge you to flip that around. This is our best time of year to build better systems, precisely because racing, travel, and race-week logistics aren't getting in the way. Set a sleep routine that holds up. Practice fueling your long rides the way you'll fuel on race day. Figure out where training actually fits in your week instead of squeezing it in wherever it lands.
Habits built now carry into the season. I promise you it's easier to establish them now than when your cross country travel falls apart.
Making the Most of It
Base season is a big opportunity to drive the gains that are going to shape next season's success. To recap:
Do the gap analysis. Know where you've been and where you're heading.
Start at the right time. Rest and reset first, then build with a plan that survives the holidays
Keep intensity intentional. Plan the hard work; protect the easy work.
Match the work to your hours and the context of your life. Not to a philosophy.
Build your systems now. Use the slower months to set the habits the season will depend on.
Get these right, and next spring you'll be sharpening the fitness you already have, not trying to find it on the start line.
If you'd like to work together heading into the 2027 season, reach out. We'll sit down and go through what you've been doing, what you want to achieve, and how we can help you get there.